Monthly Archives: January 2014

Valentine’s Day is almost here! As I was surfing the web over the weekend I found a somewhat funny, maybe a little too stereotypical joke about how one lawyer tried to increase his customer base over this holiday.

A guy walks into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing “Love” stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.

His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing.

“I’m sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, ‘Guess who?’”

“But why?”

“I’m a divorce lawyer.”

Well the story/joke doesn’t go so far to tell us if this guy’s attempt paid off or not, but certainly he was thinking out of the box 🙂

I wouldn’t suggest you to implement the above mentioned trick just to get a few more clients, but when you have some free time, think about in what different ways you could increase your audience and potential customer list.

Too often we think that the complicated and expensive solutions are the only way to grow a business. Don’t underestimate how far a little ingenuity can go.

Last night I had the chance to visit one of downtown Cleveland’s iconic places, the observation deck located on the 42nd floor of the Terminal Tower. According to my brief research, the observation deck has been closed since 9/11, and it is only opened every now-and-then on rare occasions.

Key Tower

Tickets to these events sell out quickly, but I was lucky to be invited by Tony, who had two tickets. (check out his pics @ T-Fizzle Photography)

On a clear day, the observation deck promises a 30 mile / 360 degree view of Cleveland. Despite last night’s cloudy and snowy weather the view was amazing, and I managed to take some usable shots.

Here you can see two pictures of the Key Tower reaching the clouds. They Key tower is the tallest building in both the city of Cleveland and the state of Ohio.

Key Tower

Looking out of an other window there was the “Q” and Progressive Field, home to the Cavs and Cleveland Indians. The traffic was slowing down after the Friday afternoon rush hour.

The “Q” and Progressive field

BP Tower

It was interesting to see the BP Tower from above.

Taking these pictures were tricky to me, since my hands are not too steady, and bringing a tripod was impossible.

In an effort to stabilize my shots I pushed the lens against the window, this also helped reduce the glare from the thick observation deck windows.

Finally, this is a view of Public Square from above. I’m glad I had the chance to visit this place. I believe the observation deck will be opened again in April during the daytime. Make sure to get your tickets before they sell out!

So why did I stat this blog? That’s a great question I had to answer to myself first. I wanted to start writing for my own benefit first, I wanna get better at writing and expressing myself.

I do NOT want to lecture any of you about the topics I plan to write about. I’m not an expert in photography, nor an inspirational speaker, but I choose the 3 main topic that generally interest me:

1. Photography – As I mentioned above I’m definitely not an expert in the area, and I do not intend to create a instructional or “How To” website. I merely want to share my experiences as well as keep myself motivated to take lots of picture. I found that sharing some of my pictures keeps me motivated, so there will be lots of pictures and videos!

2. Inspirational stuff – there are a ton of websites full of inspirational quotes, and picture out there. This blog will NOT be one of those. I plan to write and share things that inspires me without spamming, after all, I’m not looking for clicks and ad money.

3. Business & Economy – I’m a CPA in Ohio, and I help small law firms and service type firms navigate the financial and tax world. So by default I’m interested in issues that affect small businesses. I won’t bore you with long accounting and finance lectures, you can take an accounting course for that 🙂 I believe in “what you measure, you can manage”, and if you are interested in this topic, or you have a small business yourself, check out the “Business” section of my blog, I’ll share some tips and best practices that will help you better manage your business.

So this is why I started this blog, mainly to improve my writing skills and share what interest me along the way. Hope you’ll find some of it interesting!

I found this great TEDx video today by a kid where he talks about living a happy life through the principles of “Hacking” school/life.

This video made me question that if we can hack school, and make learning fun, and easy, THEN we should be able to “hack” the adult work-life as well.
I do not claim to have the answer, I do not have a magic list I could share with you that would make your life instantly happy.

After watching this video please take some time and think a little about your own unique situation. Wow could you hack your own life? If you came up with one or two great ideas, please share it with me. I think I should “hack” my life as well!